Methane spends a lot less time in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide; about 20 years after it’s released, most of it will have decayed, while carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. But methane also generates heat much more readily than carbon dioxide — about 80 times more in its first 20 years in the atmosphere — meaning it contributes significantly towards global warming in the short term. It is good news — sort of — because by the same token, any reductions in methane emissions will have more of an impact on the climate right away.

  • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Oh fixing it is quite easy, it is just that people don’t want to.

    While getting whole world to switch to cars with renewable power source is an enormous undertaking and we don’t know whether it is realistic, this could be fixed tomorrow. If only people wanted to.

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      2 months ago

      You’re absolutely right, but to be fair, it’d probably take a full growing season to swap all of the animal feed farms to human foods - so fixed by this time next year perhaps

      Still much quicker than renewables and global electrification.

      • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        so fixed by this time next year perhaps

        well sure, tomorrow was slight exaggeration for dramatic effect, but i think we understand each other.

    • kapulsa
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      2 months ago

      Yes, this would be very easy compared with many other problems we are facing.

      Our society in its current way relies a lot on cars. Far travels are not yet easily possible without planes. Electricity is not easily replaced (needs some time to build, we need batteries etc.). And we need to tackle all these problems and face the challenges that come with it. But food is so easy. We just need to change some optics of food. We wouldn’t even lose any nutritional value (we would even gain so many health advantages) but people insist on having tortured animals in their food instead of the same nutrients and taste provided by plants.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Everything is easy if you can get everyone to agree. World peace, end of poverty, end of inequality, end of hunger/starvation, end of climate change.

      Turns out this isn’t a very productive line of thinking. All hard problems are coordination problems.

  • MisterD@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I remember articles mentioning that by adding seaweed to the diet of cows, they would produce less methane.

    There is also a company is creating lab grown meat. They are starting with chicken breast